Self-winding wrist watch



Oct. 24, 1933. E. MoRF 1,932,163

SELF WINDING WRIST WATCH 1 I i 1711.4 b a b 'Q f f ledsejggsa Patented Oct. 24, 1933 y UNITED STA 1,932,163 SELF-WINDING WRIST WATCH Ernest More.' La ohaux-de-Fonas Switzerland Application September 7., 1532, Serial No. 632,013, and inA Switzerland September 12, 1931 2 Claims.

The present invention relates toa self winding wrist watch. v

Such watches have been known already where the band isattached at one end to a rigid ear of the watch case and at the other end to an lear held movably by supports of the watch case. This movable ear oscillates on an axle and the contractions and distentions of the muscles of the wrist operating on the band will transmit the movements by means of the movable ear to said axle, and by an arm to a winding ratchet of the barrel.

In these watches the cross bar of the movable ear to which the band is attached must necessarily project to some extent from the arm. This fact is a disadvantage for the general look of the watch, for it is generally expected from a wrist watch that its ears be arranged nearer to the wrist than the watch itself, or otherwise the bearer would be caught at those ears at every occasion.

It is the object of this invention to overcome this disadvantage. The new watch carries two ears both rigidly fast and the ymovements of the muscles of the wrist are acting on a member which produces an elastic pressure between the watch and the wrist. This member is therefore displaced by the movements of the wrist occurring when the bearer of the watch moves the hand with regard to the forearm. These movements will be transferred-to the barrel to wind it up.

The member exerting an elastic pressure on lthe wrist is generally a push-button or a stem crossing the case and bearing on the wrist. This bearing may be obtained directly or indirectly, that is to say, it may be provided on the member itself like a foot plate having a certain surface and controlled by a spring, or the member may lirest on a plate attached to the bottom of the case preferably by hinges. The push-button may be arranged freely in the thickness of the case, or attached to said foot, or be xed within an arched fla-t spring the two ends of which are fiheld in' the case and which possesses a central hole whereinto the push-button has been riveted. In the annexed drawing some working forms of a watch according to the present invention have been represented: e

Figs. 1 and 2 are a longitudinal and a cross section of a first form,

Figs. 3 and 4 are similar sections of a second form,

Figs. 5 and 6 are similar sections of a third form,

Figs. 7, 8 and v9 show a fourth form respectively in `longitudinal section, inV cross section and inrplan view,

Figs. 10 and 11 are again a longitudinal and a cross section of a fifth form, and finally Figs. 12 and 13 are similar sections of a sixth form.

In all figures only the parts necessary to understand the present invention are shown; the otherparts, such as dial, glass, ratchet wheels, escapement, setting-mechanism a. s. o, are omitted in order not to overburden the drawing.

According to the Figs. 1 and 2 the case a of a wrist watch is provided with ears b fixed to the case. The band c is flexible, but not elastic so as to absorb the tension exerted on the whole band bythe contracting movements produced in the wrist at each moving oi the hand.

A spring-controlled push-button d crosses the bottom cio of the case so as to project to the out- Y side of the case. rfhis button carries a footplate e having a certain surface brought into Contact with the wrist and connects inside of the watch to an angular lever 'f the axis of which is parallel to the not shown dial; The arm f1 oi 80 this lever is connected to a slide g fixed by two screws to the bridge of the barrel and provided at one end with a spring-controlled pawl h (see Fig. 9) engaged with the teeth of the ratchet h1 of the barrel i. IThis latter like the ordinary 85v self winding watches possesses a safety device preventing an overwinding of the barrel spring. This device may have any convenient construction and is not shown in the drawing.

When the watch has been put on to the wrist while the hand'is cut-stretched from the iorearm it will be found that each movement of the hand which causes a contraction of the muscles of the wrist and therefore an additional tensile stress o1' the band compared to that when the 95 band was put on, will cause also a pressure on the push-button. This push-button is the inember which according to the claims exerts as elastic pressure on the wrist. This pressure overcomes the pressure of the push-button and transmits to this button a perpendicular movement towards the bottom of the case which movement by means of the angular lever f and the slide g reaches the winding ratchet so as to turn it at a certain angle and to wind the spring to a certain extent.

In order tobring back the angular lever f in its initial position as soon as there is no more pressure on the push-button preferably a torsional spring is provided on the hinge pin of said lever (similar to spring a6 in Fig. 10).

According to the Working form of Figs. 3 and 4 the push-button d has no foot-plate. I bears on a flap l hinged at l1 to the bottom of the case. In this case it is not necessary that the push-button d be located exactly in the center o! the bottom of the case. (See fourth working form shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9.) This way of construction presents the advantage that the ilap may be opened suftlciently wide to form an easel with the case for placing the watch in an upright position.

In the working form of Figs. 5 and 6 the pushbutton d is riveted to the center of a curved plate spring i slidably mounted with its two ends in slots in the bottom of the case.

`It will be understood that thedevice for transmitting the movement from the member receiv ing the pressure of the wrist to the barrel could be dierent from those described. There could be for instance a rack used as an intermediate member or the angular lever could be replaced by a toothed segment or other mechanism. It

is also not necessary that the elastic pressure member be a push-button.

According to Figs. 10 and 11 the watch case cculd also be made ln two parts a1 and a2, one part constituting the contact member for the Wrist and tted into the other part a1 enclosing the movement and carrying the two not shown ears for the band the two parts being held together by springs a4. An angular lever a5 controlled by a torsional spring a6 provided on the `hinge pin of said lever rotatably mounted in a support a5 transmits the oscillations received from a knob as fixed to the part a"l to a pawl a'I working the ratchet oi' the barrel a9.

The hinge pin of the flap arrangement could also be used for transmitting the movements of the flap to the barrel as is shown in 12 and 13. An arm n rigidly fast to said hinge pin projects into the inside of the case and Works by means of a lever arrangement the winding mechanism of the movement.

What I claim as new is:

1. In a self-winding wrist watch and in combination, a case having rigid ears, a non-elastic band attached to said ears, a winding gear contained within said watch case, a spring-controlled, compressible contact member on the side of the case bottom and adapted to execute oscillatory movements perpendicular to the case bottom corresponding to the contractive and distensive movements of the wrist muscles, and intermediate mechanism including a push member between contact member and winding gear to transmit the movements of the Contact member to the winding mechanism.

2. In a self-winding wrist watch and in combination made in two compressible bezel-shaped halves, face and bottom, fitted into each other to allow reciprocal oscillatory movements per- 100 pendicular to the case bottom and occasioned by the contractive and distensive movements of the muscles of the wrist, a number of helical springs between the two halves to restore their normal position, a watch movement including the winding gear mounted in the face part of the case, a pusher pin fast to the inside of the bottom or contact part of the case, a spring-controlled angular lever in contact with said pusher-pin, and a pawl attached to said angular lever and adapt- 1m ed to work the ratchet of the winding mechanism.

ERNEST MORF. 

